Three more from beyond the grave for VC

Three more from beyond the grave for VC

Friday September 21, 10:49 AM

Does anyone else think that Nintendo’s ‘Hanabi Festival’-themed spin on the Virtual Console releases this month is nothing more than a sly marketing ploy to make us think we’re taking part in something that’s culturally significant in some way? After all, without the Hanabi tag we’d just be looking at another bunch of ropey old games wouldn’t we? And that’s pretty much what we’ve got today too, but distinctly Ninja-flavoured.

So first out of the supposedly never-seen-before bag is Ninja Gaiden (pictured) from the NES in 1989. Actually this one has been seen before – it was released in Europe as Shadow Warriors, whereas it was known as Ninja Gaiden in the US. Anyway it’s 600 Points and a lot of running, jumping, shuriken-chucking platform action which reaches levels of insane difficulty and culminates in a triple boss fight that brings new meaning to the word ‘unfair’. For purists/masochists only, we think.

Next we have Ninja JaJaMaru-kun, which really hasn’t been seen in Europe until now. This NES game hails from 1985, and boy does it show its age. The Japanese title translates as ‘stubborn fat little ninja’, by the way. Gameplay is basic and sees players controlling the chubby fella in a not-too serious multiplatformed quest to rescue the Princess Sakura, which involves chucking shurikens at your opponents, bouncing on their heads, Mario-style, and occasionally riding a giant frog. It’s 600 Points and is kind of fun, but we guess it wasn’t released in Europe before for a reason.

Finally, and totally unrelated to ninjas, is World Class Baseball from the TurboGrafx. There’s not a lot to say, really – there’s a choice of 12 teams and a final non-playable team to defeat in the single-player Pennant Mode, and there’s a two-player versus mode too. Other baseball games are available if you want 'em, but they’re all just rounders by any other name. Grumble etc...

More Hanabi-related buffoonery next week.

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